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“Barclays is believed to be eyeing up opportunities for sponsorship within Formula One. Sources claim the bank, which is one of the world’s biggest investors in sports sponsorship, is in negotiations with Red Bull Racing”

Gerard Lopez: “We both know what we are talking about (partnering Alonso at Ferrari). He would start a 100 metre dash, 200 metres behind the line. I don?óÔé¼Ôäót know if he?óÔé¼Ôäós interested (in going to Ferrari) but he?óÔé¼Ôäós a young driver, so he has plenty of time. If we can provide him with a car and a platform to win then I think there is a high probability that he stays.”

Comment of the day

Just a interesting side note really not on Catalunya but I just saw that Shanghai have now dethroned Long beach as the race with most overtakes. 81 overtakes versus 79. Granted the Long Beach race was in 1983 and was a dry race so still stand as the dry race with most overtakes. No wonder it felt that Shanghai race was chaotic with an average of over one overtake per lap.

For Catalunya you have to go back to 03 to have as many overtakes as this year (11) and than go back to 98 to the second race with more or as many overtakes as this year.Macahan

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Steven!

On this day in F1

The last F1 race at the Nivelles circuit was held on this day in 1974. The Belgian circuit was briefly used after the original Spa-Francorchamps circuit was dropped from the schedule due to safety concerns.

The short, 3.7km (2.3 mile) circuit was not popular and only held two rounds of the world championship before being dropped. It is one of few circuits that held F1 races which are no longer operational – it is now an industrial site. But the roads that once formed the circuit are clearly identifiable in the satellite image below:

I agree with the opinion that Kubica should stay at Renault. Ferrari might seem attractive, but with Alonso trying to establish a dominant position in the team, it might not be the best environment for Robert to get himself into – especially as he’d be the newbie there.

And who knows? If Michelin come back, Renault might be right up there anyway. And if they don’t, and Webber and Vettel depart from Red Bull in the next few years, Kubica could go there instead. Like Lopez says, he has time.

As far as I know, because Monaco is a soverign nation recognised by the United Nations but is not under the direct juridiction of other large international institutions such as the EU, it does not have to strictly follow many of the common conventions adhered to by the rest of the world, such as having 24 hours in a day, or having 7 days in a week or having to comply with Newton’s Third Law of Motion. Therefore, the Monacanese people don’t actually have such a thing as a ‘Friday’, like you or I do, but instead use that particular time period to gather the entire population in Casino Square where there is a traditional community brunch of caviar on toast with Dodo eggs boiled by an enormous fire of burning $100 notes.

As you can imagine, attempting to do this during the traditonal weekly period while several 300KPH+ rocketships blast past on the way down to Mirebeau would be horribly dangerous and so they run practice on Thursdays so to not intrude on this local custom.

ohh my. Nearly fell out of the bed laughing , . Even woke up my wife that just fallen asleep so Geoff she will be hunting YOU now. I had to give you up she threaten with that I had to sleep outside with the dog tonight. Weeelll weather is about as attractive as Malaysia GP 09 but with a bit more lightning… and… Bed sounded good being 12:30am..

Seeing how good Robert and the Renault F1 team work together, as well as this openly made offer to build their team up arount them i think he should stay.

They want to get on top, in the not too far past they were a winning team and up to now they have given him what he needs to be succesfull.

So why go to Ferrari now? Just build the Renault team, reap the rewards (race wins, maybe WDC or WCC).
In the mean time Alonso had the time to pull up Ferrari and win some more with them and in a year of 2-3 he can then come in when Fernando starts running the cycling team etc.
He will get in as a proven team builder and multiple winner (if all goes well) and not next to Alonso who is hot to prove his point at Ferrari as much.

Ferrari seems attractive, But McLaren and Red Bull look to be more likely to develop winning cars in the next few years, and having a team building itself around him would be something else. I’d say stay with Renault.

The Italian media is repoting that GP2 and GP3 team ART Grand Prix have also submitted an entry for the 2011 grid. It may not be te slam dunk in favour of Epsilon Euskadi that everyone has been expecting.

The FIA seem to be pushing for GP3 to be the feeder series for GP2, and for GP2 to be the feeder series to Formula 1. There’s no word on whether they’d run all three simultaneously (though as they enjoy such a high standing in GP2 and with GP3 just starting, I imgaine they’d like it), although a team with coverage in all three series would give the FIA’s plans a major dose of credibility. ART comes with Nicolas Todt involved, and would probably get serious Ferrari backing, given the way they run Jules Bicanhi.

That said, with Durango backing out of GP2 for this season and the organisers deciding not to fill the spot, Manor have expressed interest in the remaining postition. That woul also give them a presence in all three categories.

I don’t think so, but F2 seems to be losing credibility, and fast. Andy Soucek is stuck as a trest driver, while Robert Wickens has crossed over to GP3. Kazim Vasiliauskas is about the only driver with any real pulling power, which is a shame because I think the kid is good; the rest of the grid is populaed by the likes of Plamen Kralev, who was frnkly an embarrassment in GP2 Asia this year.

GP3 is a support event to GP2; GP2 is a support event to Formula 1. They run as support to Formula 1 races when the best F2 can manage is support for a WTCC round.

So this F2 was mainly a Max Mosley effort to thrump Bernie (who is behind GP2 and GP3) that failed to impress and will ultimately give up.

Nope. I believe it was an attempt to create an entry route into Formula 1. There’s a lot of lower-level series – Formula 3, International Formula Master, the World Series by Renault; pretty much everythng but A1GP and Stupid Football Thing – but there’s only one category that feeds directly into Formula 1, and that’s GP2. Formula 2 was an attempt to create a second series parallel to GP2 in order to broaden the talent pool and make it a little easier for drivers to shine. The problem is that it didn’t take. They just couldn’t get the drivers. The drivers who finised a tthe topof the 2009 ladder are all accounted for: Soucek is testing for Virgin, Wickens and Bortolotti and Hegewald went to GP3, and Aleshin returned to Formula Renault 3.5. The only race winners from 2009 who stayed for 2010 were Vasiliauskas and Philipp Eng. Now they’ve got Plamen Kralev (who was embarrassing in GP2 Asia), Armaan Ibrahim (a washed-up Bollywood star who hasn’t raced in years) and Natalia Kowalska (who hasn’t really done anything except karting). It doesn’t help that the grid was scaled back, and the races have no exposure to Formula 1. In terms of where Formula 2 stands right now, it’s probably behind Formula 3.

I would make F2 a following series to F1 in the way that pre-qualifying used to work.

Actually, that needs explanation.

In the old days, as many here would know, the field was too large to be accommodated by F1 circuits. At any one time, there could be 30+ cars officially competing

To solve this there was “pre-qualifying” on a Saturday which determined which of the bottom teams would go through to qualifying proper. which teams had to pre-qualify depended on their performance, changing halfway through the year.

My idea would be to make F2 into F1’s second series, rather like the football league is. The newest and slowest teams would start in F2, pre-qualifying for the main F1 event. Those who didn’t make it through would contest a support race, whilst the others joined the main F1 race. When running in F2 mode, certain things would be restricted for cost reasons.

A shame the FIA does not announce us of the bids made officially. Speculating is nice but i am not sure it is good for a governing body to have such things secred.

The FIA are under no obligation to announce bids. In fact, as the bidders themselves, the teams have the right to remain anonymous if they so choose. I suspect some of them will want to do just that after teams like Prodrive and Lola talked themselves up and then missed out last year.

And I don’t see how it makes the sport any better if the FIA reveal who is bidding.

I would like them to be more open on who are bidding and then who were chosen and how it was done.

The bid process involves divulging detailed information to the FIA. The FIA have no right to reveal that information. Confidentiality is key, and Jean Todt will honour that,

Not to mention what happen to USF1 and all the speculations on here and elsewhere. So and so shouldn’t be given a place because this and that or it would be a mistake to give xyz company a slot. ABC belongs more as a team then yzi because (insert unverifiable statement or info 20-30 years old).

And Alexander Rossi just won a GP3 race for them! I’ve been following him closely as the next great American hope. If ART gets an F1 slot, maybe Rossi will be high on the list for a future drive in the big league.

The problem with an ART entry would be that it could be potentially used by Ferrari to farm talent. That’s what I don’t like about Toro Rosso – their drivers are being primed for a Red Bull seat. If used by Ferrari, ART would not be able to compete in their own right.

I’m not sure that ART is quite a ferrari subsidary, it’s produced drivers for McLaren and Williams, the Nicholas Todt link is interesting an a possible conflict of interest but have they ever seemed like Ferrari’s talent farm before signing Bianchi?

Really, the comments the teams put out in their statements are so vague it’s hard to read anything into them. I only usually bother with them when there’s something concrete like a new part on the car or an interesting quote.